Thing in ‘Wednesday’ is played by an actual actor — see the behind-the-scenes video

Netflix's "Wednesday" series, based on the goth daughter of the Addams family clan, has brought new meaning to the phrase "talk to the hand."

That's because one of Wednesday's (Jenna Ortega) closest pals is a disembodied hand known as Thing. Using only four fingers and a thumb, Thing has become a breakout favorite among fans of the series, which wrapped its first season just before Thanksgiving.

And to our surprise, Thing isn't some well-crafted CGI or animated creation ... Thing is a real person!

Well, part of a real person. As a new video from Netflix explains, executive producer/director Tim Burton required that a whole man be hired to portray the character, even if all they required of him was one small part.

"Somebody who had the right look to the hands, who had nimble fingers, who was able to do all these moves (was needed)," says VFX supervisor Tom Turnbull in the YouTube video. "Also (he) had to be young enough and supple enough to fit in very awkward situations."

They found the right combination in Romanian magician Victor Dorobantu, who hadn't acted before being signed on as Thing. And as he explains, acting only through a hand presented both physical and emotional challenges.

"It’s pretty hard to create from start to end," he says in the video. "Even the way (Thing) 'talks' it’s pretty hard to find movement that can express feeling."

For shooting, Dorobantu would wear a full-body blue suit (leaving the hand out) so that he could be digitally erased later, then a prosthetic was built for the top of his hand to resemble a wrist knob. He did a lot of crouching and crawling around to make the hand look mobile, but sometimes the set had to be adjusted to accommodate Dorobantu, rather than the other way around.

"(Y)ou have to prepare with the VFX guys," he says in the video. "They have to see what angle they should use, how is Thing positioning, find ways to hide Thing. For example, under the bed. 'Hey, I can’t fit under the bed, let’s make a hole in the floor.' 'Hey, I can’t fit under the floor so let’s raise the whole building in the air.' We all tried to make a teamwork for the Thing and what it ended up looking like was awesome."

Wednesday Addams was originally created by Charles Addams for cartoons that appeared in the New Yorker between 1938 and 1988. The Addams family were humorous because they steep themselves in Gothic and macabre styles. Things that would horrify most people are delightful to them. Eventually they were the subject of a 1964 sitcom, two live-action feature films, animated series, a Broadway musical and two animated films. (Oh, and a Lady Gaga video!)

"Wednesday" takes the mythos in a new direction, following the teen's student years at Nevermore Academy, where she works on dealing with her emerging psychic powers and investigates a killing spree in town.

And in "Wednesday," Thing has a way of taking center stage, no matter where he's crawling.

"It was so funny, because the Thing language was just made up on the day," Ortega told Screen Rant in November. "Every day we’d show up and go, 'Ahhh...'" she waves her hand. "'That looks right. I feel like I kind of know what he’s saying.'"

This article was originally published on TODAY.com